


Nuit Blanche

by AMarguerite



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-07
Updated: 2013-10-07
Packaged: 2017-12-28 18:28:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/995119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AMarguerite/pseuds/AMarguerite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From the tumblr meme floating about. PilferingApples requested Bahorel and Jehan or Bossuet and Courfeyrac, with the words, 'Brontide- the low rumbling of distant thunder' and 'Strikhedonia- the pleasure of being able to say, “to hell with it.”'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nuit Blanche

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PilferingApples](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PilferingApples/gifts).



> A "nuit blanche" is the colloquial term for an all-nighter. It also seemed appropriate for a snowy evening. DarthFar was kind enough to illustrate Bahorel's dramatic entrance here: http://darthfar.tumblr.com/post/62331549713/a-quick-toon-based-on-this-drabble-that-im#notes

"How much do I actually need to pass my exams?"

This was not an unusual question to hear from Courfeyrac during exam periods. Once he convinced his parents that examinations meant ‘I need a new coat’ and he had attempted to study for about two days, Courfeyrac’s powers of persuasion left him, and he was left enervated and horribly unhappy with the not very arduous routine of the law school. As Bossuet often inherited Courfeyrac’s old coat he was very willing to sit and listen to Courfeyrac complain pitifully about how a course of study that basically meant a person had to be bodily present at an hour and a half lecture twice a week ill-prepared one for examinations. 

"I passed the first year examinations," said Courfeyrac, flopping histrionically on his bed. "I’ve sat my baccalauréat exam, what more can my parents require of me? That’s eight inscriptions, two years of going to lectures—”

"—and one year away from being legally allowed to practice law," interrupted Bossuet. "I am still astonished that you got two professors to write letters saying you are such a hard worker you deserve to take the first of the third year exams."

"Ha," said Courfeyrac bleakly. He pulled out another notebook from under a pile of Gothic novels. "I always look like I am taking notes when I am doodling. I know, I know, Enjolras has already told me I ought to have been paying attention, the material in the lectures won’t be in any other books—"

"I would offer to let you borrow my notes, but I did not actually go to class for, er, a month, this past trimester." It was astonishing Bossuet was being allowed to sit the exam at all, really. 

Courfeyrac abruptly lost the will to live and slid halfway off the bed. Bossuet at first thought that Courfeyrac was trying to take back the notebook on criminal procedure, but then realized that Courfeyrac had been spending far too much time with Jehan. 

"Chatterton was fully supine, you will not convince me you are dying because your genius is unacknowledged. Indeed, one may look at these exams as an opportunity for the law faculty to see your hitherto much hidden legal brilliance." 

"But I have to sit the exam on public administrative law, and no one can possibly be brilliant in public administration!" Courfeyrac slid further off the bed. "And to top it all I must sit this exam in January, and it is impossible to be witty and charming when the Seine is frozen over.”

There was a faint rumble in the distance. “God agrees with me,” suggested Courfeyrac. 

But then there was a closer rumble and the doorknob rattled forcefully until Bahorel broke the lock. He shuddered in horror upon seeing the notebooks and law books scattered around the apartment, and buttoned his coat up to his chin. He took care to wind his muffler around his face before saying (muffedly— which Bossuet thought was a very good pun), “You ought to control all that, a fellow could be accidentally contaminated by proxy.”

"Do you think it is possible to die from studying law?" asked Courfeyrac, sliding all the way off his bed.

Jehan poked his head around Bahorel. “I am sure one can die of anything these days, for it is the End Times!”

"There is a thunderstorm but it is too cold for rain," translated Bahorel. "So it will snow while lightening flashes. We are going to go throw snowballs at the men guarding the law students arrested last November. Want to come?" Then, glancing at the piles of books, his look rendered more disdainful by the distant rolling thunder, Bahorel added, "It is a more honest way of practicing the law under Louis-Philippe."

Courfeyrac brightened at once. Bossuet reached for Courfeyrac’s old coat. “As I have said to Blondeau, I say again— to hell with the law. Vigilante justice it shall be, until there is another barricade.”

Jehan grinned. “One hopes for a deluge.”


End file.
